Not for the first time, Ella thought how lucky she was to be a part of such a great group of ladies. She loved that she didn’t have to pretend with them. “I’m trying to be okay with everything. Declan having a child is a surprise, but I can handle it. I don’t mean this in a bad way toward your friend, Claire, but the thing I’m having the hardest time with is having to share him with another woman.”
Claire squeezed her hand, “I completely understand. Julie is my friend, but so are you. If it makes you feel any better, I know she’s engaged so I don’t think she would ever look to Declan for anything romantic.”
“I’d feel a little better about that if she hadn’t been at his place last night when I got there.”
“Doing what?” Suzy demanded.
Shaking her head in shame, Ella said, “I completely embarrassed myself in front of her. When he opened the door, I jumped on him and said some, er . . . things that I hope she didn’t hear. I got out of there as fast as I could.”
Suzy turned to Claire, “Please tell me your friend isn’t a nut like Reva.” Ella knew from Beth that Gray had briefly dated Reva before they got together and that she had tried to trick Gray into believing that the baby she was carrying was his. Luckily, she had suffered an attack of conscience and confessed before she had completely ruined the relationship between Gray and Suzy. Ella could only imagine that some of this was hitting close to home for her.
“No, I’m sure she isn’t. Wow, I still can hardly process all of this.”
“Declan did show up at my place shortly after that. He said that she was upset over a fight with her fiance. He told her that he wasn’t happy about being put in that position and I guess that was it. I just don’t get why she would go over there in the first place. I mean I know they had sex once, but she hardly even knows him.”
Beth walked out with her dress and asked, “Hardly knows who?”
The next several minutes were spent filling Beth in and letting her process her shock.
“Now that everyone knows, give me your honest opinion. Should I be worried about this?”
When there was nothing but awkward silence for a few moments, Suzy sighed and said, “Babe, I’m not going to sugarcoat this for you. I’d be on my guard. I’m not saying there’s anything to be worried about, but until you are certain that this Julie doesn’t want to play happy family with your man, I would keep my eyes open.”
Claire, looking even more pained, nodded hesitantly. “I would never say anything bad about a friend, because I truly don’t think Julie would intentionally try to come between you and Declan, but sometimes things can get confused. If it makes you feel any better, when they met at Danvers, I didn’t detect any type of spark between them. There seemed to be some recognition factor, but nothing sexual. The fact that he took you to meet his son for the first time says a lot about your place in his life.”
“I agree,” Beth chimed in, “That’s huge for a guy.” Just then her phone rang. Smiling at the display she said, “Speaking of guys, here is mine now.” Clicking the button to answer with a, “Hey babe,” she rolled her eyes as she listened for a moment. “Yes, Dad, I’m well aware of how swollen my feet are.”
“Oh barf,” Suzy shuddered, “I really wish she wouldn’t call Nick, ‘dad.’ Talk about a bad mental image.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Beth laughed as she finally hung up. “I can’t help it if the man nags me all the time. I did promise him to come home and put my feet up. If someone will roll me back up, I’ll be on my way.”
Ella was surprised to see a brief look of sadness cross Suzy’s face as she helped Beth to her feet. The look was so fleeting; she had to wonder if she had imagined it. Maybe like her, everyone had their own stuff that they were dealing with. Even someone as no-nonsense as Suzy could still have an off day.
The next few weeks passed in a blur. In addition to her regular responsibilities at work, she was also helping Beth and Suzy organize the Danvers Christmas party. Just as she had expected, the results of the paternity tests had proved that Declan was Evan’s father. Julie and Declan had told him at McDonald’s since, apparently, that is where everyone takes their kids when they want to share big news without freaking them out. Ella hadn’t been invited along on that trip, but she thought it was probably something that needed to be done without an extra person along. Declan had said that Evan took it well and his only question had been, “Does this mean we will play cars together a lot now?”
Declan had asked her to go with him to take Evan to the zoo tomorrow. It was their first outing without Julie along and she knew that he was nervous about going alone. Today though, she had convinced him to help her paint her kitchen and so far, thanks to her dropping her paint brush twice, they were both splattered from head to foot. She placed the blame solely on Declan. How was she supposed to concentrate with him wearing low-slung jeans and no shirt?
When his phone buzzed in his pocket, he cradled it against one ear while continuing to paint with the other. “Julie, I don’t know. He doesn’t know me that well. Aren’t kids afraid to sleep away from home? How does he feel about this? Give me a minute and I’ll call you back.” He put down the paintbrush and gave her a grimace. “Ellie . . . I need some help.”
“She wants you to babysit Evan doesn’t she?”
“Yeah, but it’s not that simple. You know that she and Graham are still having problems so she wants me to take Evan overnight so they can have some time alone.”
So far she didn’t see a problem, so she didn’t understand why he was looking at her with a beseeching look in his eyes. “And that’s okay with you, right?”
“I don’t mind, but I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. Do you . . . could we stay here with you or could you stay with us? I know it’s not fair to ask you and I promise I don’t expect you to babysit, but I don’t know what to do if he freaks out or something.”
Ella smiled thinking she had never seen Evan and his father look more alike than at that moment. She walked over to him and put her hand on his broad chest, loving the feel of his warm skin. “Of course you guys can stay with me. If Evan freaks out, we are probably both screwed, but I’m here for moral support. I’ll clean up and run to the store for some supplies. Why don’t you call her back and give her my address so she can drop him off.”
Declan nuzzled her under her chin, which made her shiver in response. Would there ever be a time when she didn’t ignite just from a simple look or touch from him? She had been tormenting him by painting in a long T- shirt with nothing underneath and the breath left her body when he whipped it up over her head. “She can wait, I can’t.” When he took her nipple into his mouth, sucking it until her knees gave way, she didn’t even notice the ends of her hair trailing into the paint tray behind her.
“You look like a skunk, Ellie.”
Ella looked up from the strange text she had just received from her sister. She could see Declan smothering a laugh at his son’s innocent statement.
Patting Evan on the head, she said, “Thanks, kid. I got a little too close to a man with a paintbrush.”
Declan circled behind her placing a kiss on her head as he passed. “I promise we’ll get you some paint thinner or something before work tomorrow.” Suddenly he froze, “Who’s got a key to your place, babe?” The answer to that question had them both cringing as the door opened and her mother and Crystal stood on the threshold. She heard Declan’s quiet, “Fuck me,” beside her and hoped that her mother and Evan hadn’t.
Crystal’s text saying, “Incoming, run!” made a lot more sense now. Her sister looked over at her shaking her head and said, “I tried to warn you.” It looked like the new and fairly normal Crystal was still in residence. She didn’t know what to make of it, but she hoped it would continue. The old Crystal was a disturbing clone of their mother and, frankly, a little scary.
“Ella Marie! It’s wonderful to see you alive because I fully expected to see your dead body when I opened that door.”
She heard Crystal say, “Wait for it, wait for it.”
“Mom, what are you talking about?” Ella asked.
“Well, I had to assume that you were dead since you haven’t answered or returned any of my calls in the last week.”
“Bam!” Crystal yelled, earning a glare from their mother.
She turned to where both Declan and Evan were watching the scene unfold with varying levels of fascination and knew there would be no help there. “Um, Mom, it has just been very busy at work. I meant to call you back, but I’ve been so tired, by the time I make it home that I just go straight to bed.”
Her mother cut her eyes to Declan in clear disapproval before replying, “Yes, I’m quite aware of why you go
